Generally perceived wisdom is saturated with misinformation concerning sexually expressed boyhood relationships with older males, also known as "boylove." Some of these fallacies originate in academia from victimologically oriented social scientists and are then foisted upon the public by print and electronic media. Additional sources are religion and other superstitions, unfounded folk lore, various so-called "child protection" groups and organizations, including the operatives who profit from the lucrative "child sex abuse industry." There are also "youth rights," "child love," and similar factions who confuse and conflate the core issues of boylove with these other matters, making sometimes specious claims and posting confrontational "manifestos" that serve no useful purpose. Even web sites and forums purportedly supporting boylove provide sometimes mixed and questionable messages.

This presentation is intended to refute the current myths, superstition, misinformation, exaggeration, and outright lies; to avoid the clutter of irrelevant tangential matters; and instead to address the foundational issues of boylove by offering rational and reasonable facts, sensible observations, and references to research which is free from victimological biases.

What is boylove?

In the broadest sense, boylove is the bilateral and reciprocal attraction between a boy and an older male, i.e., the love of a prepubertal or early adolescent boy FOR an older male, as well as the love of such a boy BY an older male; the latter typically manifested in a desire to responsibly protect, provide for, and mentor the boy. These attractions, by definition, have at least a latent sexual component which may or may not be actively expressed by mutual consent.[more]